Boyfriend
by CMW2
Summary: "I love that woman and I'll do anything for her, legal or otherwise." Mark Sloan may still be new at the whole protective boyfriend thing but he's damn good at it;AU Slexie fic;Rated for language and brief violence;32nd in my 2010 SSS Project


**Author's Note: I'm glad to return to this fandom. Now, I haven't watched a full season of Grey's since the 4****th**** one but I have been keeping up with it all because my mom watches religiously. There were some developments I didn't like (George dying, Izzie fleeing, Alex losing it…) and some that I did (Derek being human, Owen/Christina, and MerDer finally, FINALLY getting their shit together…) but my favorite development of the last couple of seasons is the relationship between Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey.**

**I know they're broken up (but from the sounds of things, not for long) but I want to write a pretty long oneshot for them. I like the affect that Lexie's ("Dude, she fixed him!" in my words) had on him and they just seem to work, despite their polar opposite personalities. **

**This is set while everyone's still pissy about them but instead of hiding their relationship, they're matter of fact about it and refuse to give it up, despite the opposition. **

**Disclaimer: "Honestly, it's not mine!"**

"Little Grey…what's all this?"

Lexie Grey startled and looked guiltily at her boyfriend as she made her makeshift bed in her makeshift, freezing cold apartment.

"Um…I live here, now?"

Here being the basement of Seattle Grace Hospital. She had heard rumors about Dr. Torres making a nest down here and if she could, then she could too. Lexie wasn't a bad tenet. She was quiet, clean, and she was able to get to all her shifts not just on time but early. The Chief shouldn't have a problem…

"I can see that." Mark Sloan replied wryly. "What I don't understand is why?"

Lexie blushed and looked down at her toes as she replied, "George threw me out 3 weeks ago. He said that if I insist on being with, in his words, a manwhore that'll only hurt me then he didn't want to see or hear it anymore."

Dead silence. Mark was never silent. With a frown, she looked up and gulped. The blistering rage in his eyes made her want to curl in a ball and hide. When Mark looked like that, people got their asses handed to them. George was very much doomed. The fact that it was there in her behalf was…not so scary. It was actually kind of nice.

"He threw you out in the middle of winter?" he seethed.

"It's not that cold, Mark."

It wasn't! It was early March and the heat worked down here 30% of the time…

"That's not the point and you know it, Lexie! Why…why didn't you tell me? Or better yet, why didn't you crash at your sister's? She's got plenty of room!"

"I didn't want to be a burden on Meredith. Besides, it was probably her idea to tell George to throw me out in the first place. You know that she hates me…"

"…for no damned reason! You haven't _**done**_ anything to her!"

"In her mind, I have. And I don't have the money for a hotel. I'm saving all of my money so I can buy my own place. Living down here isn't so bad. I don't have to pay rent. There aren't any roaches and I can get to all of my shifts early. Dr. Yang's been letting me scrub in more…"

Mark sighed and picked up her duffel, placing it on the bed and starting to fill it quickly.

"What are you doing?"

"You're staying with me. I still may be new at this whole boyfriend thing but I know that a man's not supposed to let his woman live in a cold, dark basement when he's got plenty of room in his warm, well lit hotel room. Hmm…why I haven't seen _**these**_ before?"

Lexie snatched the pair of tiny polka dot bikinis out of his hands and bit down on her lower lip at his leering McSteamy smile and puppy eyes. He really _**did**_ want her to stay with him. Awww…

"You _**do**_ realize that if I move in with you, it's going to be like Chapter 108 of Little Innocent Grey and the Big Bad Sloan, right? Don't laugh, I'm serious!" she giggled as he howled.

"I don't _**care! **_And lady, you are _**far**_ from innocent! You're coming home with me. No arguments. We'll slog through the bullshit tomorrow."

Lexie sighed and then yanked her blankets off of the old mattress, letting him wrap them tight around her shivering form. Arguing with him when he was like this was pointless. Besides, it would be nice to sleep in a warm bed.

It would be nicer to sleep in a warm bed with her boyfriend.

_**/**_

"O'Malley, we need to talk… _**now**_."

The man withered under his stony glare and Mark gave him a cool smile before adding, "Please?"

"What do you want to talk to him about?" Meredith Grey asked with a hateful glare of her own over a shot of tequila.

'The fact that he threw Lexie out in the middle of winter, forcing her to live in the hospital basement. You didn't happen to know about that, did you, Meredith?" Mark asked his former friend sweetly.

He had been finished with the Little Mistress ever since she drove Derek into the arms of that crazy, horse faced chick. Derek deserved better than that and she had no right to play him like a yo-yo, regardless of all of her "trust issues". He may be able to let it go in the future (Derek certainly had) but it would be far off in the future…

The guilty look on her face and the rest of her little posse's said it all.

"Of course you did. _**Nice.**_ I wonder if Derek knows how much of a hateful little cow you can be? Up, O'Malley. Now."

"I don't have to go anywhere with you."

"Um, yeah you do. Unless you'd _**like**_ to spend the rest of your residency doing rectals. I can make it happen. After all, a department head trumps stupid resident every day. I promised Lexie that I wouldn't kill you. Don't make me break that promise. _**Move!**_"

O'Malley slunk outside and Mark followed him, slamming him firmly into the outside wall, bringing a forearm up to his windpipe. There were gawking nurses and doctors everywhere but he didn't care. Only Lexie mattered…

"Listen to me because I'm only going to explain this to you _**once**_. You have no right to be jealous at all because when Lexie actually wanted you and had even convinced herself that she was in love with you, you ignored her like trash. _**I**_ had to listen to her cry. _**I**_ had to assure her that no, there wasn't anything wrong with her, that you're just a blind idiot who wouldn't know a good woman if she bit you in the ass. Shut up, I'm not done!"

O'Malley was trying to move his arm away but he pressed it even deeper into his throat, making the little shit sputter for air.

"I'm an arrogant, morally debauched asshole. I own up to that. I also own up to being a former manwhore but I'm not going to hurt Lexie and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. She's it for me. I love her. It may against all laws of reality but I love that woman and I'll do anything for her, legal or otherwise. If you do anything else to put her in danger, if you say one more hateful thing to her, if you even_** look**_ at her wrong, not only will I end your pathetic career, I will end _**you**_. Do you understand me? Do you?"

"_Y-yes_."

Mark released and shoved him back towards Joe's and what few friends he had. O'Malley may very well be a good man but as far as Mark was concerned, he was a Lexie hurting piece of shit. Any redeeming qualities he had were negated in that label.

"Keep him away from me and your sister, Grey. Don't give me that "she's not my sister" bull, either. I've had enough crap from you and your group. Yang, she'll be late tomorrow. Assign her to me. I need to make sure that this prick and that damned basement hasn't given her pneumonia. Clear?"

The normally brassy Korean woman nodded meekly and dragged O'Malley back into the bar by the collar. Mission accomplished, Mark dusted some dirt off of his jacket and headed towards his beamer…where Derek Shepherd was standing.

"Derek, the _**last**_ thing I need to hear from you is a lecture."

"I'm proud of you."

"Excuse me?"

A weak version of his "McDreamy" smile lit up his face and Mark shook his head with amused disgust as a couple of new nurses swooned. Ewww…

"You heard me. I'm proud of you and I'm happy for you and Little Grey. Don't worry about Meredith. I'll win her over."

"Or at least shut her up. Night, man."

_**/**_

"Dude, that was _**awesome**_." Alex Karev drawled before taking a healthy swig of his beer.

"That was _**not**_ awesome! He could've really hurt George!" Izzie Stevens snapped like a Mama Hen.

"It would serve him right for talking shit! I'm surprised Sloan didn't say something earlier…"

Meredith Grey tuned out their argument and sighed, drinking the last of her shot. That was weird and unexpected and…now, she felt bad. She had been the most vocal in her disapproval of Lexie and all she stood for: a healthy childhood, a perfect family that she never got to have…but there was more to her than that and the perfect family wasn't so perfect. And now, Mark had done more than she had towards her in 2 minutes than Meredith had in the year she had known her.

He loved her. It wasn't just sex. It wasn't just a conquest. Mark had fallen in love with Lexie and Meredith had tried to ruin it _**and **_she had helped put George in the line of fire. While she had been half joking when she suggested that he throw Lexie out, she never thought that actually he'd do it! He's George! He's Bambi, a puppy, she figured. He'd never…and the basement? The basement was freezing on a good day…Lexie could get really freakin' sick and it would be all her fault! Damn it…

"I'm not going to say anything because I think you've bitched yourself out enough without me adding to it.", Derek greeted bluntly as he sat next to her with a tumbler of scotch.

"Yeah…Derek, I..."

"You need to apologize to both Mark and Lexie. You also need to back off and let them do what they want."

"I…it started as trying to protect her but then…it got mean. And nasty. And bitchy…god, I _**suck**_."

"Yeah, you do. Not as much as O'Malley but…yeah, you suck. I love you, Mere but you suck." Derek chuckled.

Meredith snorted ruefully and gestured for another shot.

Maybe apologizing would be easier if she were hungover…

_**/**_

Sloan really did love her.

The rapidly forming bruises around his throat confirmed that.

Sloan really did love her and he was not going to hurt Lexie, giving him no chance to make up for it all.

George had known about her feelings but he had pushed them to the back burner as he got his career back to where it needed to be. He figured that he had time. Lexie wouldn't find anyone else…

Wrong. So freakin' wrong…

Of all people to pick, she had picked Sloan: the one man that he couldn't compete with in any way, shape, or form. He had been nasty towards her and tried to get her to see that Sloan was only using her. Then, when that didn't work, he had decided to bide his time. After all, it as Sloan. A week was a committed relationship to the man and he'd find some nurse to entertain him.

But, then one week turned to two months and then five and then seven…

He had snapped when he came home to see her reading a medical journal in Sloan's scrub pants. He had yelled at her and started tossing her stuff into the hallway. If she was going to be Sloan's whore, fine but she wasn't living with him while doing it. She had just looked at him through his tirade, increasing his anger and when he yelled for her to get out, she had, putting her clothes in a duffel and leaving her books in a large pile.

They were in a box in the living room of the Crapartment, waiting for her to come back and put them back on the shelf in her room where they belonged.

It wouldn't happen though. She wasn't coming home. Home for her was with Sloan…who loved her.

George moved the beer bottle away from his throat, opened it, and downed it.

The cool burn did little to ease his misery.

Once again, he had screwed himself out of a relationship with a fantastic woman and now, he had to watch helplessly as Lexie was happy with someone else.

And Meredith…and Callie...and eventually Izzie too….

He ordered a shot and told Joe to keep them coming.

It was better to drown in booze than regret and self pity.

_**/**_

"Put on a sweater."

"I'm okay, Mark. Really."

"Lexie…"

She rolled her eyes and pulled his old zip hoodie over her thermal shirt and his scrub pants. He handed her a pair of thick purple socks and she put them on gamely, feeling much better. After Mark had returned from Joe's, he had ordered her to the shower and turned the water on extra hot so she'd stop shivering.

Now, she was sitting on his couch, eating hot Chinese food and watching Spongebob.

"Do you need anything else? A blanket?"

"I _**need**_ my neurotic boyfriend to sit down and help me eat all of this food. Mark, I'm okay. Really. Come here."

With a deep sigh, he sat next to her and took her offered egg roll in to his mouth.

"There you go. Food always helps. Is George alive?"

"Mm-hm. Against my better judgment. Derek said that he'd deal with Meredith. Make her shut up."

'That would be nice. Even though she doesn't consider me family, I consider her to be my sister and sisters shouldn't fight over dumb stuff."

"I don't know…she looked pretty guilty. You may just be family to her after all."

"We'll see."

She yawned and he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"The next time something like that happens, you come to me, okay? I'm here for you. I…I love you."

Lexie smiled and squeezed him. She had known that but it was nice to hear him say it.

"I love you, too."

And it was more than enough.


End file.
